"Listen to me!" Garth insisted. "Your husband is dead; there is nothing that anyone can do about that. It does no good to bewail his death like this. You do yourself only harm by kneeling here and screaming."
Frima hung limply in his grasp, and a sympathetic murmur ran through the crowd. The villagers were all watching intently every second of the drama taking place in their midst.
"Stand on your feet, woman! Do not let the scum who did this see how much they have hurt you!"
Frima met Garth's eyes for an instant, then turned her gaze back to the doorway. The man Garth had chosen was trying to pry out a spike, using a knife someone had handed him. He was making a mess of the wooden frame, but carefully avoiding any contact between the blade and Saram's dead flesh.
The Dыsarran swallowed and twisted her dangling feet about so that she could stand. Garth loosened his grip, and she did not collapse.
"The cult of Aghad has killed your husband and vilely abused his body; stand strong now so that they will not have harmed his dignity as well," Garth muttered in Frima's ear.
She nodded.
"You are the Baroness of Skelleth," Garth reminded her quietly. "You must behave accordingly."
Frima nodded again, then demanded hoarsely, "Where are they?"
Startled, Garth asked, "What?"
"Where are the filth who murdered him?"
"I don't know," Garth admitted. "I killed one of them just a few moments ago, when he came to boast to me of this latest crime, but there must have been others. I have sworn to destroy them all when I find them, and the temples and shrines of their foul god with them."
"I'm coming with you," Frima said.
"There is no need," Garth told her. "Saram's death will be avenged. I swore to destroy the cult for what it did to Kyrith, and this new butchery strengthens my resolve beyond what I can express in words. I will make them all pay for this."
"I am coming with you," Frima insisted. "They killed my man."
Garth thought it best to shift the grounds for argument. "You still live, my lady, and are still the Baroness of Skelleth. You have other concerns."
"They don't matter. Are there any Aghadites in Skelleth, or will you be going to Dыsarra?"
The first spike came free, and the men struggling with it hurried to catch Saram's body as it fell. While two held the corpse, a third began working on the other spike.
"I don't know where they are," Garth replied, "but I will find them."
"We will find them."
Garth could not think of any good way to deal with this. He turned from the intense, fixed stare that Frima was giving him and watched as the workers freed Saram's other wrist.
They stood for a moment holding their lord's body, uncertain what to do next.
"Take him inside," Garth said. "The housekeeper will find a place for him."
Two of the men earned the corpse out of sight while the third closed the doors.
Reluctant to meet Frima's gaze again, Garth looked about and realized that the market was still crowded with onlookers. A surge of irrational anger at their gawking boiled up within him.
"Go home, you people!" he called. "There is nothing more to see!"
He was answered with muffled voices and shuffling feet, but the villagers seemed reluctant to depart.
"Go away, I said!" he bellowed, raising the Sword of Bheleu in one hand. The blade glowed white, crackling with chained energy, and the crowd melted away rapidly before the implied threat. In a moment the square was empty of all save the overman, the new widow, and the warbeast that waited at the northwest corner.
Garth glanced about again, trying to decide what to do with Frima; he did not think it would be wise to send her home, into the house where her husband's mangled corpse waited. He was unsure how humans dealt with the deaths of those they loved.
"Are there any rites you must perform?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "We don't bother with fancy funerals in Dыsarra. When the other cults kill someone, the body usually isn't found; we grieve, but hold no ceremonies. The people of Skelleth can attend to the ceremonies. We have to go avenge him." She looked about the square and noticed Koros, waiting patiently, at ease now that the keening had stopped. Without hesitation, she slipped from under Garth's hand and began walking unsteadily across the marketplace toward the warbeast.
Garth followed. He could easily have stopped her, but was not sure how she would react.
Halfway across the square, she stumbled; he lunged forward and caught her before she fell. They stood for a moment while she regained her balance.
"Garth," someone called, in a hideous dry croak.
The voice was instantly recognizable. Garth turned, astonished, and saw the Forgotten King standing in the doorway of the King's Inn, the Book of Silence tucked under one arm.
"There are no worshippers of Aghad in Skelleth," the old man said. "Their transporting spells are not affected by distance; they have been striking directly from their temple in Dыsarra."
Garth stood dumbfounded by this unexpected speech. He knew that the Forgotten King never volunteered information without a reason.
"Then we have to go to Dыsarra," Frima said calmly.
The Forgotten King nodded, moving his head very slightly beneath the concealing hood of his robe.
"Why are you telling us this?" Garth asked.
"So that you will not waste time."
"Will you swear it to be true, by The God Whose Name Is Not Spoken, at the cost of all oaths I have made to you if you lie?" Garth could think of nothing more binding; he knew that the old man would not be eager to give up the vows Garth had sworn. He was startled by his own cleverness in coming up with such a promise so readily; his thoughts had not been very clear of late.
"I swear it," the King replied.
Garth looked at the shadows that hid the old man's eyes, and at the firm line of his mouth, set in dry, wrinkled skin above the thin white beard that trailed from his chin. He glanced at Frima, who was obviously waiting for him to accompany her in pursuit of revenge, and at Koros, still standing patiently, and finally at the Sword of Bheleu, which dangled from his right hand, its tip almost dragging in the dust of the market, the red gem in its pommel flickering faintly. He still did not know why the Forgotten King should volunteer such information. Perhaps, he thought, the old man was eager to get the sword back, lest it gain too strong a hold upon Garth; he would want the overman to go about his errand as quickly as possible, so that the sword's return would not be delayed. That would be in Garth's own interest as well.
"Very well," he said at last. "Then I will go to Dыsarra and I will destroy the cult of Aghad there. I swore I would and I will honor that oath. But I go alone."
"No!" Frima cried. "I'm coming with you!"
"I do not want to endanger you, Frima, and the journey will be very dangerous. You must stay in Skelleth." His major concern was that the Sword of Bheleu might usurp control of him and cause him to kill any traveling companions, but he did not care to explain that. It would be too much like admitting weakness to say that he feared he would be unable to control his own body.
"I have to avenge Saram! There's nothing I want in Skelleth. Besides, you'll need a guide; you don't know your way around Dыsarra as I do. I grew up there."
"No," Garth began, but before he could continue, Frima interrupted.